Bartholomew's Notes

An invitation arrives in my inbox:

Journey of Tolerance
30th August – 3 September 2013
Azerbaijan

To Whom It May Concern:

I hope you are having a good day.

My name is [redacted] and I am the Project Director for the Journey of Tolerance an initiative by the State Committee on Religious Associations of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

The Project aims at raising awareness about cultural and religious tolerance and dialogue in Azerbaijan and promoting Azerbaijani model of tolerance worldwide.

For this purpose the State Committee on Religious Associations of the Republic of Azerbaijan invites well-known and motivated blogger’s writing about religion, dialogue among religions and cultures, education and society to travel to the Republic of Azerbaijan in order to get acquainted with the environment of religious and cultural tolerance in Azerbaijan.

On behalf of the organizer of this very important initiative we would like you to take part in the Journey of Tolerance, taking part from 30th August – 3 September 2013 as our exclusive guest.

In frame of the project we will make a 5 days tour to the different regions of Azerbaijan where different religions and cultures co-exist. You will have an opportunity to meet and talk to the people with different religious and cultural background and you will learn more about the Azerbaijani model of religious tolerance. As part of the project you will also meet with representatives of Azerbaijani government.

All expenses (round trip air tickets, accommodation, local transfer and meal) will be covered by the organizers.

We are available to discuss the project with you in more detail, in a time convenient for you.

We truly hope that you will be able to join us and we look forward to our collaboration.

Kind regards,

[Redacted]
Project Director
The Journey of Tolerance
Powered by the P World

Changing reality in 30 countries!

T. [redacted]
www.thepworld.com

I’ve redacted the name is the person concerned works for a marketing company rather than for the State Commission itself. There follows a long blurb about the religious history of the country, again emphasising the theme of “tolerance”.

Certainly, a free visit to such a fascinating part of the world is tempting – but might a trip for “well-known and motivated bloggers” turn out to be a one-way ticket? The Institute for War and Peace Reporting noted last year:

As Azerbaijan hosted a United Nations-backed internet forum this week, officials boasted of the freedom of the web enjoyed by citizens.

Bloggers, however, said the picture painted by officials was deeply misleading. Instead, they said, people in Azerbaijan could be jailed for writing the wrong thing online.

…But the blogger Emin Milli, jailed for two-and-half years in 2009 after posting a video online called “press conference with a donkey”, mocking the president, said free speech was as elusive  on the internet as it was in everyday life.

…Dunja Mijatovic, special representative on media freedom at the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, OSCE… hailed the release of bloggers like Emin Milli, Adnan Hajizade, Jabbar Savalan, Zaur Gurbanli and Bakhtiyar Hajiyev, but noted that other bloggers and journalists are tortured, persecuted and arrested.

And what of religious freedom in the country? “Representatives of Azerbaijani government” may not be willing to share the full story; Forum 18 noted last year:

Ahead of Azerbaijan’s hosting of the Eurovision Song Contest, Forum 18 News Service notes that freedom of religion or belief and related human rights such as the freedom of expression and of assembly remain highly restricted. Among issues documented in Forum 18’s religious freedom survey are: state attempts to counter discussion of violations with claims of inter-religious harmony and religious tolerance; officials behaving as if the rule of law places no limitations on their actions; unfair trials lacking due legal process; steadily increasing “legal” restrictions on and punishments for exercising freedom of religion or belief, often prepared in secret, forming a labyrinth of restrictive state controls; “legal” denials of international human rights standards Azerbaijan has agreed to implement; a highly restrictive censorship regime; enforced closures of places people meet for worship; a ban on praying outside mosques; jailing of prisoners of conscience exercising the right to conscientious objection to military service; arbitrary deportations of foreign citizens exercising the right to freedom of religion or belief; and severe denials of human rights in the Nakhichevan exclave. Azerbaijan is likely to remain a place where fundamental human rights are violated with impunity, and the state tries to make exercising human rights conditional upon state permission.

Further, in October:

Following serious criticism of Azerbaijan’s Religion Law by the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Ali Hasanov of the Presidential Administration blamed this on “translation errors” in an “unofficial translation” he claimed had been used for the legal Opinion. However, a Venice Commission spokesperson told Forum 18 News Service that the translation on which the Opinion was based was an official translation supplied by the Government…. Hasanov also claimed that the Venice Commission “now considers that the Law .. completely reflects European standards.” The Commission’s Opinion found that the Law contains “restrictive provisions which are against international standards”. The Venice Commission spokesperson told Forum 18 that it fully stands by its Opinion.

The “State Committee on Religious Associations”, also known as the “State Committee for Work with Religious Associations”, is run by a certain Elshad Isgandarov. He responded to the Venice Commission by arguing that

“It is wrong to make a speech only from an academic point of view. Azerbaijan takes into consideration the opinion of the Venice commission, analyses and gives reaction. But Azerbaijan is an independent in this and other spheres and pursuing the policy meeting its national interests and geopolitical position.”

According to a suggestive report in June:

Shortcomings are recorded in work of some religious communities which are eliminated as a result of the positive intervention by the state, Isgandarov noted.

In February, Isgandarov visited Saudi Arabia:

On 6 February, he met with the Saudi Minister of Islamic Affairs, Sheikh Saleh bin Abdulaziz. At the meeting Elshad Iskandarov expressed satisfaction with the two countries.

Indeed.

Azerbaijan is not the only country to emphasise the cultural self-expression of religious minorities as a substitute for evidence of true political freedom – China is another example.

UPDATE: And here’s another example of how the country is run; the Washington Post noted a couple of days ago:

Khadija Ismayilova is known as one of the only investigative reporters — if not the only investigative reporter — in Azerbaijan, an energy-rich former Soviet state that Freedom House defines as “not free.” That has proven risky. For the second time in the year and a half since she began investigating possible corruption in the family of President Ilham Aliyev, a video recording of the female journalist at home with her boyfriend has surfaced online. The officially unexplained emergence is widely considered by rights groups are likely part of an intimidation campaign, common against journalists in Azerbaijan.

In March 2012, when Ismayilova began looking into questionable business investments by Aliyev family members, she received a letter that read only “Whore, behave. Or you will be defamed.”

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Controversy over inclusion of pastor with links to League of the South – see update below

Glenn Beck has narrated an advert endorsing the “Founding Faith Conference 2013”, and highlighting the involvement of General William “Jerry” Boykin. The conflab – billed as “An ‘Impact Your Nation” event – will take place in Texas in September; according to the blurb:

Make no mistake, there is an agenda that has been marching across our America for many years and it is up to us to expose its forward progress.

It is not enough to simply know our Constitution.  We must not only learn how to more effectively communicate our message of American exceptionalism, but to deliver it with clarity, courage and conviction.  This two-day conference is designed to do just that! 

The impresario is a certain Margaret Andrews, who runs the “MTC Promotions Group“; in July last year she organised “Restore America and Restoring Love”, a warm-up event for Beck’s “Restoring Love” comeback rally. Andrews’ event included David Barton (more on him here) and  Shane Krauser, a lawyer endorsed by Beck as “the David Barton of the U.S. Constitution”. Andrews was formerly National Event Director at Krauser’s American Academy for Constitutional Education.

The speakers at the “Founding Faith Conference 2013” are familiar Tea Party blend of Christian conservatives and self-described Constituional “originalists”; alongside the ubiquitous Boykin (more on him here), other speakers include Timothy F. Johnson (“Founder and National President/CEO of the Frederick Douglass Foundation“; Sarah Posner has a critical profile here), Lieutenant Colonel Bill V. Cowan (“a highly decorated, retired U.S. Marine Corps officer and a commentator on terrorism and national security for Fox News Channel since 2002”; SourceWatch has more here); Clarence Henderson (civil rights activist in 1960 and now “a champion for freedom and conservative values”); David Whitney (“Pastor of Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church of Pasadena, Maryland. In addition, for twelve years he has been teaching the Christian heritage and history of our country with Institute on the Constitution where he serves as Senior Instructor”***);  Chad Hovind (son of creationist Kent Hovind and “the creator of the Fast Track bible DVD series and the Godonomics DVD curriculum series, which is endorsed by Focus on the Family’s Truth Project” – and also by Beck, who appears on the DVD covers); Chad Kent (“writer and award-winning speaker“); Ross Kecseg (“runs the [Dallas/Fort Worth] office for Empower Texans / Texans for Fiscal Responsibility”); and two speakers “to be announced”.

Other “Impact Your Nation” events organised by MTC Promotions include a “Constitution Training” event with Krauser and Linda Johnston, an anti-Obamacare M.D.; and a “Freedom Extravaganza on Land & Sea 11-Day Cruise“, including a “VIP Dinner” with Rev C.L. Bryant.

***UPDATE (9 August)

As of 8 August, the Institute on the Constitution (IOTC) was also listed as a sponsor of the event. However, reference to its sponsorship had now disappeared, and Whitney, although still listed as a speaker, no longer has an accompanying advertising blurb. One detail of Whitney’s activism that the blurb failed to note has been brought to wider attention by Warren Throckmorton:

As I have noted previously, the IOTC’s founder, director and teacher Michael Peroutka is a board member of the League [of the South] and has pledged IOTC’s resources to the aims of the League. Senior teacher David Whitney is chaplain of the MD chapter of the League.

In addition to the course offered in many evangelical churches, the IOTC course is featured on the National Religious Broadcasters network, Liberty University’s television network, Bradlee Dean’s the Sons of Liberty offers the course, and several mainstream evangelicals are speaking in September at a conference sponsored by IOTC and held at a major mega church in Texas.

Throckmorton draws attention to a complaint by a former League supporter who complains that it has experienced “radicalization” due to the presence of “white nationalists”.

Warren has now followed up:

I learned earlier this afternoon via a source at the Family Research Council (where Boykin is an executive vice-president) that Lt. General Boykin recently became aware of ties between the Institute on the Constitution and the League of the South and, as a result, has backed out of the conference.

However, Boykin is still listed and being used as the main draw for the event – presumably they’ve got him back on board by dumping Whitney (given that his blurb is gone, I suspect his continued listing will be removed in due course too). But that’s a bit awkward for Andrews, who has personally invested in Whitney; they recently appeared together on a TV chat programme hosted by Deborah Sweetin‘s “Battle Cry Ministries International“.

UPDATE 2: It seems Boykin’s definitely off the line-up; Alex Seitz-Wald reports at Salon:

Family Research Council executive vice president Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin has backed out of speaking at a conference promoted by Glenn Beck after learning that the event has ties to the League of the South, a neo-Confederate group.

“Yes, that is true. When it was brought to our attention that there were connections to this group that does not share our values, General Boykin withdrew from the event,” FRC’s vice president for communications, J.P. Duffy, said in an email to Salon, confirming an earlier blog report.

UPDATE 3: The advert has now been removed from YouTube, the event is no longer listed by MTC Promotions, and the conference website is now password protected.

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The “Pikes Peak Prophecy Summit” – which I previewed a month ago – has now taken place. On one level, the event was a commonplace – Christian fundamentalists ruminating on the Rapture or claiming that the Bible can tell us about events in the modern middle east are hardly thin on the ground in parts of the USA. However, in this instance, the line-up represents a striking convergance of Tea Party conspiracy theories, fringe pseudo-scientific speculations (derived from pop science fiction), Biblical interpretation, and Christian Zionism. The event’s website lists the speakers who were streamed, and whose presentations remain available on-demand for the next month. Here’s the line-up, with extra information added:

1. Cris Putnam—ET Disclosure: The End Time Delusion?

Putnam is Thomas Horn’s collabator on projects that include Exo-Vaticana: Petrus Romanus, Project L.U.C.I.F.E.R. and the Vatican’s Astonishing Plan for the Arrival of an Alien Savior. I don’t think that title requires much further explanation, although I have a blog entry here.

2. Douglas Hamp—The Antichrist, Freemasons and the Third Temple

An example:

Only at the highest levels of his craft does the Mason discover who is the “Great Architect of the Universe” that they so often refer to. Whereas many lower level Masons are led to believe that he must be the Judeo-Christian God, the truth is that they are worshipping Lucifer.

…[A]ccording to researcher Dr. Stanley Monteith, Balfour was a high ranking Mason (we note, however, that God often allows and uses the wicked to bring about His own purposes i.e. He used the Assyrians to punish the northern kingdom of Israel in 722 B.C. see also 2 Kings 21:14). In fact, we will see that the Masons were centrally responsible for Israel’s reestablishment. 

That should go down well at the next Christian Zionist conflab. Hamp has an MA in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East fromthe Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and “has served as an assistant pastor at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa.”

3. S. Douglas Woodward—The Final Babylon: An American Nightmare

Woodward is “author of five books on Bible prophecy, the apocalypse, alternative history, the history of doomsday, 2012, and apocalyptic topics.” He has also “written extensively on the impact of spiritualism and occult ideologies on American history,” and he apparently has a career as a business consultant.

4. Jonathan Cahn—The Harbinger Continues & The Mystery of the Malkosh

Cahn has achieved fame and bestseller status in a very short period of time by showing how events in the history of ancient Israel can be applied to the modern USA, thus explaining natural disasters and 9/11 as the consequences of the USA’s immorality. Going on about “mysteries” is one of his trademark hooks. More here.

5. L.A. Marzulli—On the Trail of the Nephilim: The Mysterious Skulls and Skeletons of Peru

Website here. Short version: artificially elongated skulls in Peru are actually the remains of aliens, which in turn proves the Bible. He “received an honorary doctorate from Pacific International University for his work on the Nephilim Trilogy.”

6. Ken Johnson—The Ancient Book of Enoch: The First Prophecy of the Tribulation

According to a blurb on Amazon: “Ken Johnson is the author of Ancient Post-flood History, Ancient Seder Olam, and the websites Biblefacts.org, Creationhistory.us and Wordofprophecy.net.” He has a doctorate from the Christian College of Texas and is a “minister and educator” in Kansas City.

7. Dr. Stan Monteith—Secret Agenda

Monteith’s “Radio Liberty” specialises in “stories of globalism and federal conspiracies”. He is best known for his theory that HIV has been spread deliberately, and for his Ssempa-like conflation of homosexuality with coprophilia.

8. Joseph Farah—After the Harbinger: The Prophecy Continues

Farah, of course, needs no introduction: through his birther website WND he’s a key lynch-pin between Tea Party conservatives and the religious right. The Harbinger is Cahn’s book, and Farah is its chief promoter. Terry Krepel’s ConWebWatch is the best site keeping tabs on Farah and all his works.

9. Paul McGuire—The Luciferian Elite: The Secret Plan For America and Prophecy

McGuire is a fairly boilerplate conspiracy theorist, although he seems to have a thing against Britain in particular; here’s a taste:

The Fabian Socialists, who were the architects of the emerging global government and New World Order, were an eclectic group of writers, philosophers, economists, poets and political leaders… It should be noted that the ideas of these so-called atheistic socialists were actually birthed out of occult beliefs…

Tavistock and other occult-based mind control operations were funded by the British Royalty, which is allegedly involved in all kinds of Illuminati and Satanic practices, In addition, the Rothschild’s helped finance the Illuminati. Rockefeller, the Federal Reserve, the City of London and Wall Street, reveal their occult connections by using Illuminati and Satanic symbols all over the monetary systems, governments and corporations. For example, the occult pyramid and the all-seeing eye of Lucifer on the back of the U.S. dollar is just one of thousands of open occult symbols….

Tavistock is very much active today, using things like depth psychology to create the Occupy movement, which is backed by Soros.

…The planned destruction of the dollar and the manufactured economic collapse is intended to bring in the coming one world economic system, by around 2018….

According to his bio: “at fifteen years old, Paul was demonstrating with radical activist Abbie Hoffman and made an honorary member of the Black Panther Party. However, while studying Altered States of Consciousness at the University of Missouri, Paul had a miraculous experience hitchhiking in a remote area similar to the movie Field of Dreams. Paul re-thought his socialist and humanist world view and rejected it as completely false. Paul has devoted his life to communicating truth to people.”

10. Russ Dizdar—Underground New York: A Clandestine Trip Inside the Enemy’s Camp

Dizdar is a 1980s-style purveyor of Satanic Panic, and a former police chaplain; he warns of the “Black Awakening”, which is when “satanic chosen ones… will be activated to unleash chaos and anarchy into the USA and other countries…… to cause collapse and pave the way for a ‘new world order’ and  the rise of the antichrist.” There’s a peculiarly distasteful element to his claims:

Q: Is it true that many victims of ritual abuse have psychic powers such as remote viewing and if so why?

Yes, they all seem to have powers. A long history of the placement of the demons and the training … for the drawing out the ‘powers in the blood’ of the chosen ones.  They have done many rituals and received transferred down powers from others who were old and dying.

Those who debunk stories of ritual abuse, he explains, are involved with the CIA and NAMBLA.

11. Chuck Missler—The Denizens of Metacosm

Missler is something of a link between what we might see as “mainstream” fundamentalism, which focuses on areas such as creationism and Biblical inerrancy, and more exotic speculations about subjects such as UFOs. He has endorsed Horn’s Exo-Vaticana claims.

12. Mark Biltz—Signs in the Heavens: Blood Moons Are Coming to Israel

Mark Biltz runs El Shaddai Ministries, and he believes that the date of Jesus’ return can be determined by considering the yearly dates of Jewish feasts and relating them to lunar eclipses. He hasn’t set a date for the main event, although 2015 appears to be strongly inferred.

13. Lennart Moller—The Exodus Case: In Search of the Mountain of God

Moller (sometimes with an umlaut over the “o”) claims to have evidence for the historicity of the Biblical story of the Exodus: the cover of his book includes a photo labelled “skeleton parts of Pharaoh’s army?” He is apparently a professor of medicine at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm.

14. Bill Salus—The Future of Israel, Iran and the Arab States

I wrote about Salus here.

15. Gary Stearman—First Trump Last Trump: Defending the Rapture

Stearman runs “Prophecy in the News”, which was the host for the conference. According to a bio blurb:

Gary Stearman’s research and teachings are very unique and reach into areas of biblical prophecy few researchers delve into. He has been documented arguing that  key individuals in the Bible were transported through time and space and that UFOs/aeriel crafts were described in the ancient books. On one occasion, when Gary was a young man and flying a plane over Texas he had a life-altering experience and what he believes to be a UFO encounter. A disc around 100 ft. in diameter approached his plane. Somehow he felt his thoughts were being probed. Later, when he landed at the Lubbock airport, he discovered he’d been gone for six hours when his plane only had enough fuel for four hours. This event led him to seek out answers that only the God of the Bible could answer.

The result was a book: Time Travelers of the Bible: How Hebrew Prophets Shattered the Barriers of Time-Space.

16. Samuel Hoyt—The Judgment Seat of Christ

Hoyt is Professor of Systematic Theology at Liberty Theological Seminary, and protégé of the creationist John Whitcomb. According to a review of his book on the subject:

Hoyt rejects the prominent view of only one general judgment (pp. 17-22) espousing the understanding of most premillenialists that there are five major eschatological judgments (pp. 22-23).  The judgment seat of Christ is specific to the church-age believer and occurs between the rapture and the second-coming of Christ (pp. 47-54).

Next:

17. Bob Cornuke—Biblical Archaeology: A Police Investigator’s Perspective

Well, if a fire investigator can interpret the Copper Scroll, why not have a police investigator shake up the world of Biblical archaeology? But Cornuke actually has an archaeological qualification, from Louisiana Baptist University, and he claims to have found Noah’s Ark on Mount Suleiman in Iran.

18. Barrie Schworz—35 Years of Shroud Science: A Personal Perspective

Barrie M. Schwortz’s Turin Shroud website can be seen here. He’s a science photographer, and, somewhat unusually, he’s an Orthodox Jew.

19. Bill Koenig—The White House;s Role in Israel and the Middle East

Koenig runs World Watch Daily. He is particularly focussed on “the consequencies of dividing Israel”, by which is meant the natural and other disasters that will descend on the USA if it fails to accomodate the wishes of the Israeli right-wing.

20. David Olander—The Greatness of the Rapture

Olander is Professorof Biblical Languages at Tyndale Theological Seminary. According to a blurb for his book:

What is the rapture? What does it involve? When does it take place? How does it relate to other events in the last days? With insight and clarity, Dr. Olander answers these and other questions, while at the same time developing a new approach to an old subject.

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Somehow I managed to miss this one completely; from the Guardian:

Chronicling how a convicted criminal and martial arts fighter found redemption through God, Taming the Tiger had more than 1.5m copies distributed around the world while its author, Tony Anthony, become a sought-after speaker in schools and churches.

In the book, which carries the strapline “From the Depths of Hell to the Heights of Glory”, Anthony explains how he was taken to China by his grandfather, a kung fu grand master, and trained to become a martial arts champion. He then moved to Cyprus, where he became a bodyguard to businessmen, gangsters and diplomats. “In the line of duty as a bodyguard, I killed people,” Anthony would tell church audiences. “I have broken more arms and legs than I care to remember.” Later he recounted how he found God while in prison in Nicosia after being convicted of theft.

The book was a phenomenon. It was translated into 25 languages and won the Christian Booksellers’ Convention Award in 2005.

But now, following a sustained internet campaign by a group of Christians who doubted Anthony’s claims almost from the start, it appears that little of the book is true.

Anthony’s website now carries a notice:

It needs to be stated at the outset that Taming The Tiger was intended to be the ‘story’ of my early life. It never set out to be a strict historical account of each and every event with supporting minutiae. As such, it remains a ‘true story’, descriptively told and consistent with many other similar publications in its genre.

…Since writing, I have discovered some information about my family history of which I was unaware when first working on Taming The Tiger. I now fully accept that there are a number of details that appear in the book that are no longer historically accurate. For example, as a very young boy I was raised to believe that the man in whose house I lived and who trained me in Kung Fu was my grandfather. It has since come to light that this individual was not my biological grandfather. Whilst I now recognise this is the factual truth, I cannot accept that the reporting of my memory as it appears in Taming The Tiger is ‘incorrect’…

I gave my life to Christ in Nicosia Central Prison in Cyprus through the ministry of God’s faithful servant, Michael Wright – and it has been an honour to put into practice the Great Commission – to proclaim the Gospel to all creation!…

It’s true that evangelical paperback autobiographies of exemplary Christian personalities are usually dramatised into semi-novels and shaped into formulaic narrative structures by a professional writer (such books are usually billed as being “as told to…”); in Anthony’s (real name: Andonis Andreou Athanasiou) case, though, the problems appear to go deeper and his publisher – the rather infelicitously named “Authentic Media” – has now dropped the book and other Anthony titles.

The publisher’s decision – and the Guardian article – follow an investigation that was written up by Gavin Drake on the Christian website Crosswire earlier this month. It transpires that the kung fu grandmaster grandfather was actually “a laundry worker in Cardiff who later owned a café in Streatham”, and Drake documents that Anthony “used a fraudulent date of birth when he got married” and “changed his date of birth with Companies House.”

However, one question is why it took so long for the publisher to act. A bit of googling shows that concerns were being raised years ago. A website called Bullshido (“no BS MMA and Martial Arts”) has an extensive thread going back to 2009, which picks apart aspects of his story and includes reports of interaction with the publisher. A poster named Stephen Prunetti wrote in September 2009:

last posted on here over two years ago. Good to see more and more people have seen through Mr Anthony’s ludicrous fantasies. Two years ago, I asked his publisher, Malcolm Down of Authentic Media, if Anthony had ever been held accountable for the murder he freely admits to committing on Saudi Arabian soil, within the pages of his book. Malcolm Down assured me he’d be in touch to address my concerns. Funnily enough, he never did get back in touch. So, as i have more time these days, i’ve got back in touch with Malcolm, and i am currently awaiting his reply to my two-year old question. I’ll post on here as soon as he replies.

Down replied soon after:

Dear Stephen,

Thanks for your email – i do appreciate you taking the time to write and apologise for not getting back to you initially over 2 years ago.

You will not be surprised to learn that we have had a few people raise similar questions to yourself over the years so Tony has now decided to add a ‘questions and answers’ section to his website www.avantiministries.com. The tab is already there and the page will be completed within a month.

Having just spoken to Tony on the phone he asks if you could check out this page when it becomes live and if you still have any unanawered questions feel free to email him via the website.

With regard to your specific question about whether we believe Tony or not, there is an assumption built into the contract that each author signs that they are telling the truth. In respect of the White Tiger incident which you mention, it can’t actually be proved one way or the other. Tony thought he saw a white Tiger so that’s what he wrote – if what he saw was not actually a white Tiger but some other animal that does not make him a liar.

With regard to your claims regarding Tony’s knowledge of Kung Fu i can only defer to the ‘experts’ in China. The book has been translated into Chinese and although there were some queries similar to those you have mentioned, Tony has answered all of these now to the publishers satisfaction – if they were in any doubt of the claims he has made i’m sure they would have brought these up already. If, however, you are convinced that there are basic errors in his Kung Fu knowledge we would encourage you to detail what you think these errors are.

We can assure you that we have always taken seriously the issues you and others have raised, in fact some issues will be addressed in the next reprint of the book.

Thanks again for contacting us.

Warm regards

Malcolm

Down later added that “We obtained character references from people like George Verwer, Michael Wright and Tonys pastor. The manuscript itself was read by several people prior to publication. All were satisfied as to Tonys claims.”

Verwer was described on Anthony’s website as being his “mentor”; Anthony’s apparent fabulations are likely to be particularly painful for him, as his own religious ministry has had a particular concern for Christian literature (Authentic Media was at one stage owned by STL, which has distant origins as one of Verwer’s missionary operations).

(Thanks to a reader, David M., for bringing this to my attention)

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One does not expect much from Fox News at the best of times; but a recent interview with Reza Aslan has – deservedly – come under particular mockery for the interviewer’s ignorance and bad faith.

The interview was conducted by Lauren Green, who is described as being “a religion correspondent” for Fox, and it concerned Aslan’s new book Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. Green appeared to no know little of the book or of scholarship in general, and the segment consists exclusively of her demanding an explanation from Aslan about why a Muslim would write a book about Jesus.

Choosing the most egregiously stupid moment is tricky – Green accuses Aslan of failing to “disclose” that he is a Muslim, despite the facts he does so on the second page of his book and that he’s one of the better-known Muslim commentators in the USA; there’s also a bizarre analogy in which she compares Aslan to a Democrat writing a book about Ronald Reagan; but the lowest point I think was this:

You’re quoting yourself as a scholar, and I’ve interviewed scholars who have written books on the Resurrection, on the real Jesus, and who are looking at the same information that you’re saying… to say that your information is somehow different from theirs is really not being honest…

We all understand (at, least, over here in the UK) that a news interviewer’s job is often to take a hostile and sceptical line, even if that line is not particularly strong, but that’s not the same thing as appearing to be clueless. Throughout the interview, Aslan attempted patiently to convey to Green the nature of academic study. He made it very clear to her that his book is located within a scholarly debate, and that the book is not based on any kind of Islamic agenda. In particular, he stated that the book calls into question the historicity of the Virgin Birth, which is an Islamic as well as a Christian belief, and that the book rejects the Islamic teaching that Jesus was not really crucified.

Green’s complaints were taken from vague polemical objections by conservative Christian apologists, primarily an ad hominem attack by a pastor named John S. Dickerson (this guy) that was published by Fox a few days ago:

Liberal media love new Jesus book ‘Zealot’, fail to mention author is Muslim

…As a sincere man, Aslan’s Muslim beliefs affect his entire life, including his conclusions about Jesus. But this is not being disclosed. “Zealot” is being presented as objective and scholarly history, not as it actually is—an educated Muslim’s opinions about Jesus and the ancient Near East.

“Zealot” is a fast-paced demolition of the core beliefs that Christianity has taught about Jesus for 2,000 years. Its conclusions are long-held Islamic claims—namely, that Jesus was a zealous prophet type who didn’t claim to be God, that Christians have misunderstood him, and that the Christian Gospels are not the actual words or life of Jesus but “myth.”

Remarkably, Dickerson manages to drone on for more than 750 words without refering to a single specific argument made by Aslan, beyond the general point that he approaches the Bible in a standard critical way:

Aslan informs us that we cannot trust the Gospel of Mark–because it was written 40 years after Jesus’ death. He then chides us to trust his new book, written almost 2,000 years later.

Judging from a quick browse of Aslan’s text on Amazon, it appears to me that Aslan’s perspective on the historicity of Mark is temperate and completely in line with mainstream scholarship and the understanding of educated Christians – which is that the text is assembles earlier traditions, and is written in a certain way in order to make a particular point. “Trust” is a complete red herring.

Aslan has scholarly credentials, but he’s not a specialist in this area (his PhD dissertation, under Mark Juergensmeyer, was on global Jihadism and transnationalism), and I’m generally sceptical when a book gets promoted ahead of others in the same field due to an author’s public profile as a commentator. However, to risk stating the obvious, Aslan’s arguments and use of evidence need to be judged against the work of other scholars. Academics who have written on the historical Jesus come from all kinds of faith backgrounds; there are no grounds for dismissing Aslan, much less for insulting him as “not being honest”, just because he happens to be a Muslim academic. His bibliography runs to ten pages, and shows a broad familiarity with standard scholarly books and articles on the subject (albeit all in English only, from what I could see); he also has around fifty pages of notes, which begin with an appreciation of John P. Meier‘s multi-volume study on Jesus, A Marginal Jew.

However, Dickerson and Green’s whining pales besides a predicably abusive screed by Pamela Geller that was published a few days ago on WorldNetDaily:

Robert Spencer is a writer without peer and a nonpareil scholar, the author of 12 books on Islam, jihad and related topics, including two New York Times bestsellers. Yet “Did Muhammad Exist?” was ignored and dismissed by the intelligentsia, the media elite and subversive academia.

…In what can only have been inspired by the Goebbels template, Reza Aslan will not only be on the Bill Maher show and “The Daily Show,” but this subversive lowlife will be speaking at universities like NYU, Ohio State and the University of Southern California, as well as at numerous public libraries and (gasp) synagogues like Temple Judea in Palm Beach, at upwards of $30,000 a pop. Despite denying basic Christian doctrines, he is speaking at several churches and even preaching the Sunday sermon at one.

…[Although] “Did Muhammad Exist?” is a straightforward, dispassionate historical investigation, the media treated it as if it were the one that was designed solely to denigrate and disparage the founder of a religion. That is not true of Spencer’s book, but it is true of Aslan’s screed “Zealot.” Yet the media never comment on the derogatory title of Aslan’s book. It is just fine with the media to speak negatively about Jesus, deny his historicity, deny his importance, denigrate his teachings and more. But any true word that is spoken about Muhammad, whether it be about how he is depicted in Islamic texts or about the historical value of those texts, is viciously attacked.

The argument appears to be that because Aslan is a Muslim, we must assume that his book was written as an attack on Christianity; yet it is wrong to assume that Spencer – who makes a living polemicising against Islam – probably has a polemical intent.

I don’t know if Spencer’s well-deserved reputation means that his book was unfairly dismissed despite putting forward a serious case – although given what I know about Spencer’s shortcomings (e.g. here, here and here) I’d be surprised if it’s any good. But if Spencer was overlooked by “media elite and subversive academia”, conservative allies more than made up for it; the book’s designated website on the publisher’s page (the conservative ISI Books) carries quotes from various positive reviews from sources such as The Blaze and PJ Media.

UPDATE: Despite the widespread drubbing Fox has received over the interview, others have stepped in to continue the attacks on Aslan. At First Things, a certain Matthew J. Franck accuses him of “misrepresenting his scholarly credentials”, and seeks to prove his by point by pedantically deconstructing the wording of his formal qualifications; while Glenn Beck mocks Aslan for mentioning his qualifications at all, and for using the word “historicity”. Positively revelling in his own ignorance, Beck – who has an honorary doctorate from Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University – declared:

if you don’t believe that Jesus Christ is the savior of the world, that’s fine. That’s fine. No biggie. Go your way. I’m going my way. I happen to believe it. And there is no doctorate that could ever be given to me  that would actually prove otherwise. Because you learn that through faith. You learn that through an individual testimony. I got one. You don’t have one, you should find one. You don’t want one, that’s fine. I don’t really care. Stop telling me who Jesus was.

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Austin Ruse of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM) has apparently recovered from his ordeal of having seen a lesbian couple on a cookery programme, and has now travelled to Russia, he says,

…to thank its government for its strong position on these issues at the United Nations, and to let them know American conservatives favor the recent homosexual law.

Ruse notes evidence of a gay scene in Moscow, and concludes that

We hear many things about Russia these days:  corruption, crackdown, authoritarianism – from Human Rights Watch, ACLU, Amnesty International. And from conservative folks, too. But, I wonder if things are so clear-cut as we are led to believe. 

Claims about a Russian war on gays is false. I wonder what else is false. What I know is a religious revival is going on in Russia. And the Orthodox Church is leading it.

…Russia is rightly criticized for some of its acts, but it may also be under attack for reasons we cannot wholly see. 

While he was there, Ruse met with two high-profile and powerful lay activists within the Orthodox Church:

Russian Railways czar Vladimir Yakunin, whom I met with, recently engineered a visit to Russia of the True Cross of St Andrew [more on that here – RB].   Five-hour lines in the rain awaited anyone wanting to venerate it. Happily, Yakunin arranged for me to cut the line. 

I met also with young tech billionaire Konstantin Malofeev whose office is festooned with religious icons. He is working to bring Russian Orthodox and U.S. Christians closer together. 

Malofeev and many other Russians see themselves as a Christian nation sent to help other Christians around the world. For them, at least, that’s why they support the Assad regime; he’s better for Syria’s Orthodox Christians. 

He wonders if some sort of grand global alliance between the Orthodox and Catholics can be achieved and what effect that might have on the global culture war advanced by the sexual left. I wonder, too.

Ruse also says that he attended “a Russian sponsored conference in Rhodes last year”; this would have been Yakunin’s most recent World Public Forum event, which I blogged on here; the Forums bring together various political, academic, and religious leaders in ways that create some rather weird line-ups.

Yakunin and Malofeev both already have links with western Protestants, particularly via the World Congress of Families. Malofeev recently addressed a WCF event in Sydney:

Konstantin’s presentation entitled “A New Global Pro-Family Alliance” contrasting the situation in the West with that of the USSR in the 1980s, or as his graphic illustrated, Christians vs Communism.

…Konstantin then contrasted the situation of the 1980s with that in 2010: In the West there were attacks on religious freedom, a “war” on Christmas, atheistic education curricula, political correctness censorship, radical LGBT ideology imposed, ll countries recognized same-sex “marriage” and others are expected to follow.

Malofeev then laid out plans for 2013-14: a “Safe Internet League” (maybe David Cameron should have a word), lobbying, and:

family friendly global social networks including news, conservative TV Channels in the EU, Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States… Also aim for a conservastive “Wikipedia”, conservative “Facebook”, conservative search engine, a culture-wise family movie-guide launched globally, ratings of family-friendly businesses, a Christian content aggregation of thousands of websites (Aleteia.org) and a political activism platform (CitizenGO).

Perhaps inevitably, though, there are also controversies around the two men’s wealth; the anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny (who was infamously sentenced to prison just last week) has recently shone a spotlight on Yakunin’s complex off-shore business portfolio and alleged lifestyle (it is claimed – shades of John Lennon – that he has a “fur coat storage room”), and Malofeev was raided by police late last year as part of a fraud investigation involving a 2007 deal.

A report by Navalny’s  Foundation For Fighting Corruption and the Russia Studies Centre at the Henry Jackson Society notes the following concerning Malofeev:

In 2007, VTB Bank and VTB Capital agreed to finance the sale of six Russian dairy farms by a company called Nutritek to a company called RAP. To that end, the bank granted RAP a loan of $225 million. RAP defaulted on the loan within a year in November  2009. A subsequent investigation revealed startling problems with the transaction. It is alleged by VTB Capital, though unproven, that both Nutritek and RAP were actually owned by the same person — Konstantin Malofeev— through separate subsidiaries of  his company, Marshall Capital Partners…It was also alleged that at the time of the sale, Nutritek had highly overinflated the value of the dairy plants. When all was said and done, the bank found itself in possession of a series of dairy facilities worth no more than $35 million though this figure is disputed. VTB has since been mired in years of unsuccessful litigation in the United Kingdom to try to get its money back. So not only had the bank extended nearly a quarter of billion dollars in credit on the basis of collateral worth less than one-fifth as much, it had allegedly financed a deal in which Malofeev had effectively sold his own company to himself, pocketing nearly $200 million in the process, based on VTB’s own calculations.

VTB alleges that it was misled throughout the process and that the civil liability rests solely in Malofeev’s hands. But it is apparent that there were many failures on the bank’s part, leading the Hon Justice Arnold of the High Court of Justice, Chancery Division in London to note in a November 2011 ruling that, “It is not clear from the evidence presently available what, if any, due diligence was carried out by or on behalf of either VTB Moscow or VTB to verify the assertions” made by the parties to the deal.

Malofeev’s business affairs and religious associations were discussed by the Russian edition of Forbes following the police raid, including his fund named for Saint Basil. The article includes the detail that he takes advice frequently from Archimandrite Tikhon Shevkunov, who is also very close to Putin – the monk was the subject of a long Financial Times profile in January (“according to persistent rumour, Tikhon ushered the former KGB colonel into the Orthodox faith and became his dukhovnik, or godfather”).

Ruse’s views on Russia are shared by the American anti-gay monomaniac and Christian Right activist Scott Lively; just the other day, Lively published a “Letter to the Hungarian People” (H/T Ed Brayton) stating that:

I can’t point to any country of the world today that is a model for the rest of the world, except perhaps for Russia, which has just taken the very important and frankly necessary step of criminalizing homosexual propaganda to protect the society from being “homosexualzed.” This was one of my recommendation to Russian leaders in my 50-city tour of the former Soviet Union in 2006 and 2007.

More on Lively here.

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Speakers included former commander of British forces in Afghanistan

This year’s “Christians United for Israel Washington Summit” took place earlier this week; it’s a particularly bizarre conflab, which sees politicians and some serious-minded figures share a platform with the most extravagent apocalyptic evangelists and conspiracy-mongers, led by a man – John Hagee – who has stated that Hitler was sent by God as a “hunter” to persuade European Jews to move to Israel.

The Forward has a summary:

“Mr. Kerry, restarting the peace process with the Palestinians is fiddling while Rome is burning,” Rev. John Hagee, CUFI’s founder and president cried out to the cheers of an excited audience expressing its support with lengthy applauds and the blowing of the shofar.

…”No return to the 1967 borders,” Rabbi Aryeh Scheinberg of San Antonio, Texas, said in his the invocation. “No return to the Auschwitz borders.”

…The conference hosted a lineup of critics of the administration’s Middle East policy, including Texas Senator Ted Cruz who argued that the United States should take action against Iran if it gets close to reaching a nuclear weapon, congresswoman Michele Bachmann, Senator Lindsey Graham, and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. Graham told the audience he plans to present a bill to the Senate authorizing the use of military action against Iran’s nuclear plan.

…Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice president of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, added that the “cost of action,” when it comes to Iran, “may be great, but the cost of inaction may be much greater.”

I previously wrote about Hagee and Scheinberg here.

Think Progress (citing a paywalled CQ Roll Call item), discuses Lindsey Graham‘s contribution in more detail:

“If nothing changes in Iran, come September, October, I will present a resolution that will authorize the use of military force to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb,” Graham told a “cheering” audience at a conference put on by the right-wing group Christians United for Israel…

“The only way to convince Iran to halt their nuclear program is to make it clear that we will take it out,” Graham said, echoing comments he made last week, calling the war authorization “the last card to play in a very dangerous situation.”

However, Graham was outdone by Benyamin Netanyahu, who warned via satellite that Iran plans to use nuclear weapons to attack the USA. According to CBN:

After thanking them for their unwavering support, he also warned them that Israel isn’t the only target of Iran’s nuclear weapons.

“Those weapons aren’t prepared to launch against Israel,” Netanyahu warned. “They already have nuclear missiles. Those ICBMs are intended for you to hit the United States and that could happen very soon.”

(That first sentence gives the impression that Iran already has nuclear weapons, although Netanyahu doesn’t quite say that)

Meanwhile, RightWingWatch describes Glenn Beck‘s contribution:

During his speech, Beck boldly declared that the United States was “established for the establishment of Israel,”…. And, as proof that our Founding Fathers were well aware of this, Beck pointed out that even our dollar bill contains a Star of David, as well as representations of the cloud and fire that led the Israelites while they wandered in the desert.

It’s not true, of course, but that is what happens when you get your history from people like David Barton.

Typically with Beck, there were also theatrical flourishes; according to his Blaze website:

To illustrate his point, he brought out several historical pieces, including a handmade whip from Auschwitz, a teacher’s manual that explained how to identify Jewish students and explain away their sudden absence to others in the class, and a letter signed by Neville Chamberlain. He spent a lot of time with the Auschwitz whip, pointing out that someone had to hand make an instrument of pain and torture for another human being.

….Putting his own words into action, Glenn pledged a $100,000 to ChristiansUnited for Israel and their campus outreach program…

I wrote about Beck’s links with Hagee and with other Christian Right figures here.

Keeping the British end up was Colonel Richard Kemp CBE, who formerly commanded British troops in Afghanistan and who now provides “consultancy services for private sector companies on leadership, security, intelligence, counter-terrorism and defence”. At Frontpage, Jim Fletcher has further details:

Kemp began by revealing his own Christian faith, and invoked the name of another legend, whom he called “The greatest Christian Zionist in Britain.” He went on to say that he had, that morning, spoken to Orde Wingate. Many in the crowd smiled but were puzzled.

“I spoke to him this morning at Arlington,” Kemp said…

Kemp delivered an impassioned defense of Israel that brought many in the room to tears. He mentioned several of Israel’s major battlefield achievements, calling the 1976 Entebbe rescue, “The most breathtaking special forces operation the world has ever seen.”

Kemp also referred to the CUFI Summit as a “remarkable event,” and indeed it was.

Kemp has “shared platforms with US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and former Australian Prime Minister John Howard” (1).

Hagee’s worldview is perhaps best exemplified by a 2003 sermon entitled “The Final Warning, The Coming Crash, and The New World Order”. It can be seen here, and there is also a useful summary by Bruce Wilson:

At 1:38 Hagee states, “Out of European history then comes a group of people who are, who call themselves the Illuminati. They were a group of Satanists. The word Illuminati comes from the word illuminate which means to enlighten. The Bible says Satan is an angel of light. Satan is an angel of light. The Illuminati were a super secret organization of international financial power brokers in Europe, who had as their goal a worldwide economic power, and they would rule the world through economic wealth.” At 7:48 Hagee states, “Now here are the four things that have to happen before the New World Order can come to power. One, there must be the destruction of the economic system, the monetary system. It may be shocking to you but I believe that America’s economic problems are not created by market conditions, they are planned and orchestrated to devalue and to destroy the value of the dollar. It was done by an unseen government that I’ll discuss later in this message.”

At 10:22 Hagee states, “Our economic destiny is controlled by the Federal Reserve system that is now headed by Alan Greenspan. Think about this. It is not a government institution. It is controlled by a group of Class A stockholders including the Rothschilds of Europe and the David Rockefellers of America.” At 11:13 Hagee states, “So get this one thought. The value of the dollar is controlled by an agency which is not controlled by America. You don’t have to have a Ph.D. in finance to understand that. The value of your dollar is controlled by an organization, the Federal Reserve that is not controlled by America. That’s a fact.”

Note

(1) Kemp is also a sometime associate of Patrick Mercer MP, a fellow ex-serviceman. Kemp must have been dismayed when Mercer was recently secretly recorded describing an Israeli soldier as looking like a “bloody Jew”; Mercer is now asking pro-Israel questions in Parliament by way of atonement.

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Charisma News reports:

The government of Honduras—including the department of governments, the military, the police and judicial departments—gathered this weekend with thousands of people, leading pastors and civic leaders for the first government transformation session for national change.

The event, given the name “1Nation1Day“, was organized by Missons.me, which in turn was founded by a certain Dominic Russo along with Jedidiah Thurner and Gabe Bahlhorn. However, Bahamian prosperity gospel evengelist Myles Munroe (previously discussed here) was also part of the action:

Myles Munroe was a special guest at the event Friday and delivered the powerful message “Transforming Politicians Into Leaders.” Honduras President [Porfirio] Lobo Sosa has invited Munroe to return to the country to continue his training.

We’re told that members of the military “rose to their feet” in response to his message.

Russo met Lobo Sosa ahead of the event back in March; the Christian Post reported Russo as saying that:

“We have almost 1,600 people already signed up to come with us to Honduras July 13-21. We have already shipped 10 containers of aid and we’re gathering eight more…. We’re going to be broadcast live in Honduras on the government channel. We’re going to be on every radio station in Honduras and broadcast hopefully across the world with a couple of different Christian networks.

“…I believe that President Lobo wants to see the challenges that the country faces overcome. I believe he wants to see healing, unity and peace. He wants to bridge the divide that currently exists.”

“I think he’s also a wise man and wants to open his arms to international investment. Having business leaders and students and ministry leaders all coming and focusing on his nation in one campaign, could only bring benefit to Honduras,” he added.

Lobo Sosa  – a conservative rancher – was elected in November 2009, six months after a coup removed Manuel Zelaya, who had attempted to call a referendum on allowing a Presidential re-election. Depending on who you read, Zelaya was ousted either because he had committed “an offense, in fact a wrongdoing that is tantamount to treason”, or because of “the Honduran oligarchy’s fear of what would happen if the people got a chance to write their own Constitution”.

Either way, though, there are serious concerns about human rights in the country; last month in the USA, 20 Democrat senators put their names to a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry:

Since June of 2009, international and Honduran human rights organizations have documented a pattern of violence and threats against journalists, human rights defenders, members of the clergy, union leaders, opposition figures, students, small farmers, and LGBT activists.  There are also recent reports of death squads working with police, and in some cases consisting of on- or off-duty police, to kill gang members even after they surrender. The Honduran Congress created a “Directorate for Investigation and Evaluation of the Police Career” in December 2011 to address corruption and criminality in the police force, but it has turned out to be a disappointing failure.  Only a handful of the hundreds of officers recommended for dismissal have been removed.  The Honduran judiciary routinely fails to prosecute human rights violations, and many other crimes go unpunished

The Honduran city of San Pedro Sula was recently described as the most violent city in the world; a recent NPR report noted the assessment of the country’s Minister for Justice and Human Rights, Ana Pineda:

She says the public doesn’t trust the government. Most agencies collude with organized crime or use the institutions for their own political power and wealth, a situation many say has increasingly worsened since the 2009 coup that ousted the left-of-center president.

Last year, the U.S. Congress held up funding to Honduras over concerns of alleged human rights abuses and corruption, particularly in the Honduran police force. Part of the funds are still on hold.

One looks forward to seeing the effect of further “training” from Myles Munroe.

One can’t help but recall uncritical support that was given by US evangelical leaders to Rios Montt back in the 1980s.

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From the Guardian‘s Rome correspondent Tom Kington:

Vatican offers ‘time off purgatory’ to followers of Pope Francis tweets

Papal court handling pardons for sins says contrite Catholics may win ‘indulgences’ by following World Youth Day on Twitter.

…Indulgences these days are granted to those who carry out certain tasks – such as climbing the Sacred Steps, in Rome (reportedly brought from Pontius Pilate’s house after Jesus scaled them before his crucifixion), a feat that earns believers seven years off purgatory.

But attendance at events such as the Catholic World Youth Day, in Rio de Janeiro, a week-long event starting on 22 July, can also win an indulgence.

…Mindful of the faithful who cannot afford to fly to Brazil, the Vatican’s sacred apostolic penitentiary, a court which handles the forgiveness of sins, has also extended the privilege to those following the “rites and pious exercises” of the event on television, radio and through social media.

“That includes following Twitter,” said a source at the penitentiary, referring to Pope Francis’ Twitter account, which has gathered seven million followers. “But you must be following the events live. It is not as if you can get an indulgence by chatting on the internet.

In its decree, the penitentiary said that getting an indulgence would hinge on the beneficiary having previously confessed and being “truly penitent and contrite”.

One can see why journalists would be struck by the juxtaposition of 21st century technology with a theological concept that many people (and especially Guardian readers) associate with the Middle Ages, but one expects something a bit better than this sniggering, vulgarized approach to the subject from a serious newspaper.

The Guardian article is derived from a piece in Corriere della Sera. That article was entitled “Plenary Indulgence with a Tweet”, which was apparently justified by a quote from a priest who appears to have some kind of relationship with the paper:

…In the end, we turned to Fr Paolo Padrini, a respected scholar of the Church’s relations with digital communications who has earned the nickname “iPriest” from his students for his obsession with always being connected. It was Fr Padrini who coordinated the soon-to-be-launched Pope2You-Corriere.it project which will enable users of the Corriere della Sera’s website to obtain images and original contributions from Rio de Janeiro for World Youth Day. Fr Padrini says: “Imagine your computer is a well-laden table where you can find tweets from Pope Francis, videos on YouTube, clips on Corriere.it and Facebook postings from your friend in Brazil. That is the dinner that will nourish your spirit. Sharing, acting in unison, despite the obstacle of distance. But it will still be real participation and that is why you will obtain the indulgence. Above all because your click will have come from the heart”.

Current Catholic teaching on indulgences is to be found in Indulgentiarum Doctrina, which was issued by Pope Paul VI in 1967. It includes the following:

An indulgence is partial or plenary according as it removes either part or all of the temporal punishment due sin.

…A partial indulgence will henceforth be designated only with the words “partial indulgence” without any determination of days or years.

This makes the Guardian’s reference to climbing the Sacred Steps to earn “seven years off” as a comparison doubly inappropriate. It should be noted that the phrase “time off purgatory” in the Guardian headline does not appear in Vatican decree or anywhere else, despite being in quotation marks.

Indulgences are also discussed in Pope John Paul II’s Incarnationis Mysterium (1998); it includes references to the “state of Purgatory” and to “temporal punishment due”, but the emphasis is on the expiation of “whatever impedes full communion with God and with one’s brothers and sisters” rather than on mechanistically seeking “time off”.

According to the Vatican decree itself concerning World Youth Day:

The faithful who are legitimately impeded, will be able to obtain the Plenary Indulgence provided that, complying with the usual spiritual, sacramental and prayerful conditions, with the intention of filial submission to the Roman Pontiff, participate spiritually in the sacred functions during the specified days, provided that they follow the same rites and pious exercises while they are taking place, through television and radio or, always with the due devotion, through the new means of social communication…

A similar decree issued last year in relation the “Year of Faith” also mentions “television or radio”; the passing addition of “new means of social communication” is merely an obvious extension of the general principle, and journalistic interest is disproportionate.

The Guardian is not the only paper to have botched its reporting; the Australian Daily Telegraph has the following:

Pope Francis to forgive Twitter followers’ sins online

POPE Francis will offer pardons for sins over Twitter next week as part of World Youth Day celebrations, to be held in Rio de Janeiro.

The Vatican has issued a decree, announcing that the Pope would give ‘plenary indulgences’, which reduce the time spent in purgatory for sins committed.

This is again misleading, asking us to imagine the Pope firing off indulgences via Twitter. On Twitter itself, the story has opened a floodgate of snark, the suggestion being that “time off purgatory” is being offered to anyone who RTs a @pontifex Tweet.

One doesn’t have to believe in, or even respect, the idea of “indulgences”; but if you’re going to write seriously about the subject, at least attempt some proper understanding of what they mean to insiders.

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From the Greek Reporter:

The shrine with the Cross of St Andrew the First-Called has arrived in St Petersburg.

The relic has opened the festivities marking the 1025th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus due to take place on the territory of three states – Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.

The “Baptism of Rus” refers to the moment in 988 when Grand Prince Vladimir ordered the mass baptism of the people of Kiev. As of 13 July, “65,000” people had queued to see it.

The cross has been brought to Russia by the Foundation of St. Andrew the First-Called, and the Foundation’s chair, Vladimir Yakunin (a close ally of Vladimir Putin), travelled to Patras in Greece to oversee the the relic’s transportation (pictures here). Two years ago, Yakunin arranged for a relic believed to be the Virgin Mary’s belt (or girdle) to visit Russia from Mt Athos for the first time.

St Andrew’s association with Kiev and Russia is outlined in a scholarly book on the Valaam Monastery by Kati Parppei. She writes that an association of Andrew with the east was developed in Constantinople as a counter-balance to Rome’s association with St Peter, although it only received official church support from 1204 (the year when Constantinople was attacked by Crusaders). The idea then spread to ecclesiastical circles in Syria, Georgia, and Kiev: “a worthy founder, preferably an apostle, gave [Kiev] the legacy and authority of a true Christians principality”.

Andrew was subsequently linked to Novgorod, thus linking the city to first century Christianity rather than Christianization via Constantinople, and then to Moscow, legitimizing Muscovite rule. In the sixteenth century, Andrew came to be seen as having prophesied “the Christianization of the whole Russian land”.

The cross will be Russia from 11 to 25 July, followed by three days in Kiev. A commentator to the website of the Religious Information Service of Ukraine caustically notes:

Isn’t it sad that when the Kyivan Church celebrates its 1025th anniversary, the Holy cross of its founder will spend 4 times as long in Moscow and area than in Kyiv where St. Andrew stood and prophesied. How typically Russian.

Currently, the Orthodox Church in Ukraine is divided between an independent “Kyivan Patriarchate” and churches in union with the Moscow Patriarchate. Last month, Patriarch Filaret mocked the fact that Russia was beginning celebrations with a procession of the relics of Prince Vladimir beginning in Vladivostok:

This is the twisting of history. We are celebrating an event that occurred in 988 in Kyiv. Moscow did not exist as a city, let alone the capital of a state, at the time. Even the Russian Empire celebrated the 900th anniversary of baptism in Kyiv, not in Moscow or Petersburg. So why do they begin to mark this date in Vladivostok? Because Russia cannot possibly drop the fixed idea of the so-called Russian World (they have also drawn the Russian Orthodox Church in there).

A Ukrainian government-sponsored interdenominational commemoration will take place on 27 July; Patriarch of Moscow Kirill has apparently confirmed that he will not attend if Filaret is present. Kirill recently emphasised “the countries of historical Rus, including Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus” in conversation with the President of Greece.

After Kiev, the cross will move on to Minsk. According to the Belarusian Telegraph Agency, “the relic will be on display in the Apostle Andrew Church and the Church of All Saints.” Kirill enjoys a close relationship of mutual admiration with Belarus president (and “Europe’s last dictator”) Alexander Lukashenko.

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